Designer: Your logo is in it. Down there in the corner. Get closer to the screen.

Client: I guess I see it. Could we maybe . . . embiggen it a smidgen?

Designer: No. Next question.

Maybe it’s never happened exactly like that but, most of us in marketing have witnessed exchanges along those lines. The designer in that scenario has taken her advisor role to its extreme, where advice has transmogrified into unyielding command.

We don’t do that here. (If you don’t believe me, here’s what you should do: Become our client. Then you’ll see. I stand ready to receive your call at 336-676-6822.)

But we do say “no” sometimes. And when I tell you about a recent example, your first reaction might be something like “What kind of naïve imbecile would do that?”

There are times when I am a naïve imbecile, but this was not one of those times. What happened was, a client called and said “I’ve got some money here and I’d like to give it to you folks. Please take it and use it to redesign our sales kit.”

So yeah, here’s the part where you go “Did you really say no to that?” And then your next question is “Can I have the phone number of that client please?” (Now I’m saying “No” to you.)

Of course there is more to the story. I didn’t just decline the funds and wish my client a good day. I reviewed her sales kit and agreed that it could stand some grooming. However, I knew that the basket of money she was waving in my face was all she had in her marketing budget for the rest of the fiscal year. Some serious prioritization was in order.

Now, this client wasn’t asking me for financial advice. She wanted design advice. So I was indeed risking a scenario in which she picked up her basket of money and stormed out.

It was a risk worth taking. In our experience, good clients welcome all kinds of advice, even when it is counter to their original request. In a job long ago, in a galaxy far away, I had a client who had built an astonishingly successful logistics company. He was a really smart guy—smart enough to welcome challenges. I once attended a meeting in his company’s stately conference room; also in attendance was my trusted account director, Mike. At a certain point in the meeting, the client held up an ad he had torn out of a magazine. It featured a scantily clad model draped over an outboard engine. My client asked “Why aren’t we doing stuff like this?”

The room got very quiet.

Mike (my hero) blurted “Because that would be the stupidest thing you could possibly do.”

The client smiled. He still liked the scantily clad model but he liked frank advice even more. (Mike and I expanded on that first comment, and the client saw our reasoning.)

Okay, back to my client with the request for a sales kit redesign. When I put the brakes on that idea, she was disappointed. She even kind of whined and begged a bit. (She was half-joking.) But when I told her that there were better uses for her remaining budget—uses more likely to trigger sales—she graciously accepted my advice.

Maybe we’ll get to redesigning the sales kit next year. Meanwhile, our client knows that if we always said “yes” to her suggestions it would only feel good for a while. The occasional “no” may be briefly annoying, but it can be more rewarding for the client in the long run.

What makes a logo work?

Consumers have more visual exposure to brands than ever before. This overexposure means it’s more important than ever to make sure your brand works on all platforms. This is especially true of your logo. Check the 4 criteria below to make sure your logo passes the basic brand test.

Simplicity

“Keep it simple, stupid.” This phrase was coined by the U.S. Navy in 1960, and it has only gained potency since. Simple logos are the most easily recognized, making them more effective when it comes to identifying your brand and business. Logo designer and author, Jeff Fisher says “A refined and distilled identity will also catch the attention of a viewer zipping by signage at 70 miles per hour, on packaging on the crowded shelves of a store, or in any other vehicle used for advertising, marketing, or promotion.”

Classic

When it comes to logos, longevity is key. Though tempting, it’s best to avoid current trends. Jumping on the fad-wagon is a surefire way to make sure your logo will become dated in just a few years, and revamping a logo isn’t cheap.

Transferable

You will also want to avoid digital elements, such as shadows or gradients, that will be difficult to replicate on future mediums. Thin lines and narrow typefaces make for difficult printing on surfaces like newspaper, or smaller promotional items.

Unique

Effective logos feature something unexpected or unique, without being overdrawn. Your logo should rarely (if ever) be the first picture your mind conjures about your business. A company making golf balls should never use a golf ball as a logo, particularly because they’d be printing that logo—you guessed it—on golf balls.

What are the most recognizable logos in your mind? What makes them unique?

If you’re looking to rebrand, design a logo, or simply want some more information about marketing in general, give us a shout. It’s what we do.

With Great Resolution Comes Great Responsibility

Today’s technology gives us access to devices with extremely high resolution and amazing display capabilities – but not all devices (and all users) are created equally. And as with any comic book superhero, this great power can be used for good or for not-so-good. In other words, with great resolution comes great responsibility. To avoid going to the dark side, do not get caught in these high-res pitfalls.

Avoid the Squeeze Play

When designing for high-res displays there may be a desire to push the limits of size and spacing of interactive elements, squeezing more and more functionality into a single screen. Fingers are not as precise as mouse-based cursor inputs, so don’t get carried away here or your users may struggle. Users may attempt to tap on what they think is a touch control, but if they miss a too-tiny touch zone they may think that it is not actually a control after all. End result: user exits stage left frustrated and confused. When considering the appropriate size of touch zones for interactive elements (and spacing between elements) think about who will be using the app. For example, if you are designing an app for young children, their finger size is much smaller; however, their manual dexterity and fine motor skills may not be fully developed, therefore requiring a larger target zone for tapping.

Just Because You Can, Doesn’t Mean You Should

Small font size and extremely fine detail may be possible on high resolution displays but may interfere with ease of use. Just because your device can graphically support a clear rendering of a 4-point font does not mean you should take advantage of that capability. The size of text, level of graphic detail, and related color choices should fit the unique needs of your app audience. Again, it’s really important here to consider who will be using your apps. If you are designing a dating app for seniors, the visual acuity and color perception of your users is going to be much different than an app targeting high school baseball players.

Aim to add fine graphic details and extra text only when it buys its way in to the app by adding value. Does the extra detail aid in the users’ understanding of an icon, make navigation clearer, or reduce scan time? If so, congrats! You’ve made the team!

Prevent Brain Freeze

We all know about brain freeze, right? Eating too much ice cream way too fast – brain freeze! Well, brain freeze can also occur when you’re hit with too much information too quickly. With high-res displays, avoid the urge to overwhelm the user with too much information all at once just because it is easier to fit more content on to a single screen. The thinking may go something like this: More Info on One Screen = Fewer Screens = Better Experience. However, going this route may actually have the opposite effect, making the user’s experience less efficient and less enjoyable by bogging down the user on a content-heavy screen that they simply may not tolerate. Again, the end result is user exiting stage left to find the next app on the list.

Establish early in the design process the specific tasks that will be accomplished in the app, as well as the associated information required for the user to successfully accomplish these tasks.

As you are designing the app, walk through mockups screen-by-screen to ensure you are providing the right level of information at the right time for your users. Allow them to effectively complete the desired tasks without overwhelming them. Whenever possible, simplify the experience to guide the user in a clear, intuitive manner that makes them want to keep exploring. An extra screen or two may be okay if you are simplifying each interaction and reducing the cognitive burden of the user throughout the experience.

Honey, I Shrunk the Icons

When developing your app you want to establish a good sense of the range of devices on which it will likely be used, and prepare your design accordingly. Make sure that your app display does not get lost in translation when being rendered on a lower resolution device – not everyone is on a Retina display yet. Device canvases vary greatly between high and low resolutions and between mobile phone and tablet platforms. Make sure you are able to appropriately scale your design for the full range of devices you expect to be used, so that you do not alienate any segments of your market.

If you want your app to stand out in the vast wilderness of the app store, take an extra second to consider both the available display capabilities and your users’ unique capabilities and limitations. There are a lot of choices available in the app store so please design responsibly when going high res!

Thinking about a new mobile app for your business? We can help. Learn more about our mobile app development team or contact us with any questions you may have about the app design and development process.

Why would a professional designer take a suggestion from a client who works in an entirely different field? It’s not as crazy as it sounds. Sometimes clients have good ideas and it is a designer’s responsibility to listen with an open mind.

Two examples of bad responses to client requests suggest the advantages of a respectful give-and-take between businesses and their marketing partners. The stories highlight two extremes on the spectrum of how creative companies deal with suggestions from their clients.

One example comes from the case files right here at Red Letter Marketing. In our first discovery meeting with a new client, one of the things we discovered was how badly the company had been treated by its previous web design vendor. As a new website had taken shape over a period of several months, the client had posed reasonable questions concerning some of the creative decisions made by designers at the web firm. Among them: Are you folks sure (our new client had asked) that the headline font you’re using (the H1 font, in HTML-speak) is the best choice?

The response from the design firm was to send the client a link to Google Fonts, with a suggestion that he find one he likes. In a bizarre exaggeration of accommodation to client wishes, the design firm had simply sloughed off its role as experienced guide through the subjective decision-making process of font choice. When we heard this story, we realized that our client had been so ill-advised that we couldn’t wait to show him what a real marketing partnership is like.

At the other extreme is the creative individual who will brook no suggestions at all from the company funding the project. My favorite example of this behavior occurs in Ayn Rand’s novel The Fountainhead, in which architect Howard Roark responds to changes made to his building design by, um…well, by blowing up the building.

Howard Roark might have had a legitimate beef. Maybe the design changes were bad ideas. But—dude. Dynamite? It’s a bit showy. Rand mimicked her character’s behavior when she learned that Roark’s speech to the jury had been trimmed in the screenplay of the movie starring Gary Cooper. In a fit of pique that lasted the rest of her life, she refused to sell the movie rights to Atlas Shrugged.

The vast majority of web designers avoid the use of explosives to make their point. And yet, a dismissive attitude to client requests is all too familiar. Ironically, the most unyielding creative people often attract a particular type of loyalty from clients who are reassured by their certainty.

Creative decisions are founded partly in reason and partly in a mysterious “gut feel” that arises from the interplay between a designer’s innate taste and the mix of current design trends. Designers call on their gut every day and each time they do, it gets stronger. So it’s more likely that a working designer will make, say, an appropriate font choice than would an accountant who may be looking at the bewildering variety of font choices for the first time.

But a designer who listens carefully to a client request is increasing the odds of creating something worthwhile. It doesn’t mean she must necessarily take the suggestion. But the willingness to consider its possible validity is a sign of openness that will serve both her and the client well. Legendary ad man Bill Bernbach made a shtick out of carrying around a card conveying the thought “Maybe he’s right.” While the card itself may have been a bit of show-biz, the sentiment strikes me as one that still rings true.